ESU faculty strike likely as deadline looms

Contract talks between the managers of Pennsylvania's 14 state-run universities and the faculty and coaches' union are coming down to the wire.

DAN BERRETT

Contract talks between the managers of Pennsylvania's 14 state-run universities and the faculty and coaches' union are coming down to the wire.

Sources on the faculty have estimated that the odds of the strike taking place are now at least 60 percent in favor.

With three sessions remaining before Saturday night's strike deadline, the local chapter of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and Universities prepared to walk off the job.

In a show of solidarity, faculty moved the union's offices on Monday from the campus of East Stroudsburg University to a location in downtown Stroudsburg.

All 14 offices of the state union did the same.

That action followed a weekend of negotiations between the nearly 6,000-member union and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which manages the universities.

The two sides have been negotiating such areas as treatment of temporary and part-time faculty, but the sticking points remain salary and benefits.

The most recent offers from each side are narrowing from what they once were, but still generating heat from both sides.

The state system offered a $1,250 cash payment to each full-time faculty member at the start of the upcoming fall semester, with no percentage-based pay increase that year. The next three years would see raises of 2 percent for each of the first two years, followed by a 3 percent hike in 2010-11.

Each year, most faculty would receive an additional raise in the form of a "service increment" of 2.5 or 5 percent each year, depending on their level of seniority. This would go to about two-thirds of the faculty — everyone but the most senior members.

"Unacceptable," was what Nancy VanArsdale, president of ESU's union chapter and a member of the negotiating team, called the state system's offer.

"Our negotiations teams are willing to return to Harrisburg this week to try to get a reasonable contract," VanArsdale said in a statement. "In the meantime, our strike preparations, which could interrupt summer classes, are moving full-steam ahead."

According to a press release issued by the state system, the union favored a 4 percent raise next academic year, followed by 5.5 percent for each of the two subsequent years, and 5 percent in the final year, 2010-11. The same service increments in the state system's offer would apply in the union's.

The union also proposed adding a new level above the current top tier, and removing the one at the bottom, effectively shifting the pay levels upward.

The two sides have been meeting since January. Prior to this past weekend's proposal, the previous official offer from the state system was for 0 percent raises over four years.

The union has called its existing deal a "hardship contract." It included a 0 percent increase in 2002-03.

"The economic conditions of the state were pretty bad," Kenn Marshall, spokesman for the state system, said. "Everybody was facing pretty tough times." He added that faculty and managers alike did not get raises that year.

The current contract expires June 30. Three bargaining sessions remain for the faculty — on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Coaches meet with the state system on Wednesday.

"We're working hard and we're still hopeful," Marshall said. "We're making every effort we can to get it resolved."

While he hoped the state system and the union would reach a deal before the deadline, Marshall noted that it had never happened before; the faculty had called off a strike because talks had yielded progress.

Marshall said the universities will remain open after July 1, though he acknowledged that any classes taught by striking faculty will be canceled and the tuition reimbursed.

"I'd hope that as many as our faculty would stay in the classroom and honor the commitment to our students," Marshall said.

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